UK STUDENT VISA Application | All Documents| All Costs | CAS, Finances, English, IHS, TB Test ...

 UK STUDENT VISA Application | All Documents| All Costs | CAS, Finances, English, IHS, TB Test ... 

In today's blog

I am going to be telling you all about

the UK

student visa i'm going to be telling you

the documents you need to apply for it

how long processes take how much the

different parts

of the visa application process cost and

yeah basically

everything you need to know to apply for

it i personally applied for the student

visa in

2021 i did not use an agent so

everything you're gonna get from this

blog is from what i researched on i

attended a lot of

online events when it came to like what

you need to apply for your visa and

everything so i have a lot of

information that is well researched

so before we get into detail with all

the different documents i'll just give

you a list of all the documents you will

need

when applying for the visa so first

obviously you're going to need

your passport and you should have a

blank page so that they can put

the visa secondly you're going to need a

cast which is a confirmation of

acceptance of studies which is going to

be issued

by your university we'll just get into

that into more detail later

three you're going to need financial

documents now this is the core

of the whole application but we'll get

into that so you have to

have financial documents to prove that

you can like sustain yourself in the

first year

and you can also pay your tuition for

the first year of university

you may or may not need an atas

certificate

a tas is basically academic technology

approval scheme which is mainly for

postgraduate students who want to do

research programs

you'll need to prove that you have a

qualification in english which is

something that is very popular and most

people

know about you're going to need to show

your original copies of your

academic results certificates and

finally you may or may not need

to have a tb test done that is basically

all the documents and now we're just

going to get into them in more detail

and actually talk about how to get them

and everything so first the cast i'm

pretty sure you've seen this

cast word in a lot of different places

the cast stands for

confirmation of acceptance of studies

and it's something issued by your

university

to basically prove that you have a place

with them and you know you're you're

actually going to study there

so the cast is in a form of a reference

now and

it is what you're going to put into your

visa application form

and the immigration people are basically

able to put that for that number into

their systems and they can see all the

information your name

the university your course how much your

tuition is how long it's for whether you

need an a test

all those little things

basic details that are about you

and your link to the university so it's

very important that you

check the details on your cast very very

carefully you have your passport number

as well on it

so you want to check that it's correct

check the spelling of your name

this document is actually very helpful

when you're filling in your visa

application form because

you will be asked to put the name of

your university their location their

contacts your program

different information that you may not

know off of your heart

so it's very important to just have this

form to fill

that in so how do you actually get this

cast

you have to have an unconditional offer

with your university

have paid any deposit if they are proven

any

results certificates if you need to so

if you got a conditional offer and they

said you need to

you know get these results pay this

deposit or do abc

you need to do all those things before

you can get your cash

and for me i had a portal with my

university so i was able to communicate

with them

see what i needed to provide if there

was they they were able to email me

to say you know if we didn't get the

certificate can you send it through

so we can prove the results you put in

your ucas

application and i did that and basically

once you provide

everything you need to provide they'll

just send you this document

that is called the cast it's very

important to try and do this

early because it's the first step to

applying for your visa if you only

receive your results in august it is

going to be your last step but make sure

that you provide everything else that

you need to provide so once you get your

results

you're just sending those through and

within a week you have your cats and you

can basically just

finish off the visa process cast numbers

are basically first

issued from three months before you

start date so if you're gonna start

university like

on the first of september they're

usually first

issued on the 1st of june so you want to

like

check as soon as they start issuing you

want to make sure you have already done

your things

so before as soon as you get your

conditional offer start providing

information so you're at the point where

once they start issuing you're like the

first batch of people receiving

so one thing to note is that if you

don't use your cast number within three

months

you'll have to ask for another one you

don't have to prove anything else

but you just have to ask for a different

cast number because that one would have

expired and if you do use the cast

number and your visa is rejected

you have to ask for a new cast number so

don't just go

and use that same cast because it's no

longer

valid that's just something to note so

next we have

proof of finances so your bank

statements

this is literally the core of a visa

application so they basically want to

know that you're able to support

yourself and pay your tuition for the

entire of your first

year of university which means that in

those bank statements you have to have

the money to cover your entire tuition

for your first

year and that amount is stated on the

cash so if you look into that cash

document again

there will be a section that says

tuition and if you paid a deposit

that will be deducted so you only have

to show that you have

the balance for the tuition so on top of

that you have to show that you're able

to support yourself

whilst you're in the country in terms of

rent

living expenses travel and the like so

when it comes to this the UK government

actually came up with estimates

per month of how much you need when

you're in London and other places so if

you're in London they estimate that

for each month you'll need 1334 pounds

and you have to show that you can

support yourself for

nine months which is usually the length

of the

the academic year in your account you

have to have

twelve thousand and six pounds so on

your account you have to show that you

have

the tuition plus twelve thousand and six

pounds if you're outside london you have

to have one thousand and twenty three

pounds

per month times nine months which means

that in total you have to have

nine thousand two hundred and seven

pounds so obviously that's a lot of

money and it's not going to be in one

account and personally coming out of

high school i wasn't even proving that

the money was mine

i was using my parents so yes you can

use your parents and your parents can

use

more than one account as long as it's

under their name and not

a business or anything like that with

that being said you can only use your

parents or legal guardian you cannot use

your aunties and uncles to like prove

that

you have that money in their account and

if you are gonna use your parents or

legal guardian you have to provide

your birth certificate or a legal

document to show that

you know this is your parent or this is

your legal guardian

and they have to on top of that which is

very important

write a letter to say that they allow

you their child or

their person they're caring for to use

their finances

to finance their university tuition and

cost of living and all of that

28 consecutive days that means 28 days

straight this being said it doesn't mean

that you can't use the accounts during

those 28 days but it just means that

for those 28 days you need to have the

amount untouched so for example if we

say tuition is

10 000 pounds and then maybe in london

which means you need to have

twelve thousand and six pounds you need

to have

twenty two thousand and six pounds in

your account that is left

untouched for those 28 days if you're

using different accounts

make sure that the days correspond to

the day the 28th day or whichever day

which is at least over 28 days that you

print it out

has is the same on all the accounts i

hope that makes sense because that was a

mouthful but make sure you print them

all out on the same day so that you

prove that

didn't take money from another one and

then switch it and then you know

things like that after you print those

bank statements you can only use them

for

the next 31 days which means your timing

has to be perfect

after you print them out your visa

appointments

have to all be

if you're from a certain list of

countries that 

below you do not have to prove that you

can sustain yourself whilst you're in

the country so you don't have to prove

the nine-month cost the 12 06 and

whatnot

i'll just put the list of countries

there it's just a couple of countries

most of them actually you do have to

prove that amount so

just take note of that if you have a

scholarship

then you have to provide an official

letter from the organization that gave

you the scholarship and it has to be

proper

stamped by them signed by them it has to

have

your full name show how much money

exactly that they're providing to you

how long they're supporting you and

their contact details so that

the immigration officers can call and

confirm

that you have that scholarship and all

of that documents should also show

whether it's a full or part scholarship

and if it is a part scholarship then

obviously you do have to have the

financial documents that i was talking

about

but with the amount that balance out

your scholarship amount

so i hope that makes sense the story

about 28 days and everything

will still apply to the part amount that

you have so yeah that is it

with proof of finances it's very

important that you follow

the days and you know everything is to

the point don't try and do anything

sketchy because like i said

this is the point that will really make

or break you and i know it's a lot of

money

but it's just like for those 28 days and

you know

so yeah i hope you find this useful if

you have any questions about the bank

statements

documents days and you know all of that

just leave them  in the comments so

next we have English language

qualification so to apply for a visa you

also have to have a certain English

language qualification

now this is usually the same as the

qualification that you need

for the university personally i didn't

have to write a different taste

i didn't even have to write the first

test 

 I had Cambridge international as

level English

and my University was happy with that and in my

cast it actually stated that

I had proven that i know my English and

I don't need to

you know do anything extra so because

it's in my case i also did not have to

prove it for my visa

so just make sure you check that cash

document because it has

a lot of useful information but with

that being said

it never hurts to provide so i still had

my English certificate

with the documents that i carried to the

visa appointment

so if you have not written any any

English tears i would suggest that you

do write one

or check with the university because the

university is actually very helpful when

it comes to these visa things these

application things they know

a lot of information about it and they

can tell you whether or not you need to

write an extra test or anything

like that

so if again you look into your cast you

will see

the qualifications that were used to

give you that place and

mine personally were a level result and

it was written there all my different a

level qualifications

that had me get that place so when i

went to the appointment

i carried my original a level results

certificate

and again because i'm extra and it's

always better to be extra because at the

end of the year trying to prove you who

you are you're trying to prove

that your intentions are really just for

education i carried all my certificates

original certificates for the exam

results that i put into my

ucas application so just carry your

original documents

photocopy them so that you have copies

but just have the original because you

want to prove

so next we have the TB test so

you have to do a TV test if you're going

to be going to the UK for a period of

longer than six months

and obviously going to study is longer

than six

months 

and if you're going to do this taste

when you do this taste don't just do it

anyway there are a list of trusted

places where you have to do that test

personally being from zimbabwe the one i

had to go to was in harare called

diagnostic imaging center 

so make sure you check that out this

test is 165 us dollars in

zimbabwe specifically i'm not sure about

the other country so this test actually

is valid for

six months and you get a certificate

after you do it they do a

chest x-ray and a physical exam and you

get a certificate you say you know

you're safe and you're free

this test is valid for six months

so if you're smart and you want to do

your visa applications with no stress if

you know you're traveling whenever

or you're applying whenever you can

actually do your tbts

way earlier than you do your visa

applications

so those are all the main documents that

you need in your visa application

and now i'm just going to talk about the

actual application form

for the visa the visa application form 

is

basically what you use to apply for the

visa and book your appointment

to submit everything and that's where

you're also going to put in your cast

the information about your study

and information about yourself 

form and that is something that you can

basically fill in from

even way before you start your visa

processes just so you can see what's

there what's needed

and all of that if you have any

questions about it the details there i

know some things can be a bit confusing

like i said your cast make sure you have

your cats next to you most of the

confusing things are on your cast

document so once you have completed the

whole thing

you will get to a point where you have

to pay

a insurance help surcharge

this is a very shocking amount and

it's very confusing because it comes at

the end of the whole application

and you cannot submit that application

form before you pay that amount

so that amount is 470 pounds

per year of your study so if you're

gonna study for three years

you're going to have to pay 1410

pounds for the health surcharge

this is basically your medical insurance

when you're in the UK

that is something that comes at the end

of that application form

the actual application also has a cost

and it is 385 pounds

so to send your application you will

have to pay

the health surcharge as the last step

and then after that you have to pay for

the application as a whole

and that is 385

pounds i hope i'm not scaring you

because the numbers are a lot

but this is just me being frank and

trying to like put it out there for you

so those are basically all the documents

that you need when you're applying for

your visa of course there's always these

extra things

according to your course or which

country you're from so just always stay

alert

check your university websites for the

international student support

there's always information i don't know

how much i can stress this but

it's always there there's always

information i know people like to hear

it

but it's there just to check that you

have everything when it comes to the

timing

it's really different for everyone and a

lot of things can happen concurrently

but first things first is chase after

that cast make sure you send everything

that the university needs so that you

can get your cast because that's the one

thing that you don't have

entire control of so once you chase that

cast

and hopefully get it early you can start

thinking about your

financial documents and doing the 28 day

thing and again 28 days is actually the

minimum

so you can do more than 28 days but make

sure you start

chasing the documents and also start

doing your visa application

form and like i said tb test you can do

it even way before

you start your application as long as

it's within the six months

it takes about three weeks for your visa

to come up you can pay for it to come

early but personally

i don't think it's worth it if you time

your things right three weeks is more

than enough and most of the time it

doesn't even take three weeks

mine personally took about a week and a

half which was

really good and really amazing so yeah

make sure you you're

on top of things you know what you need

to do because you don't want

to be shocked in the last minute like

financial things where you need to have

28 days and you want to travel like in

the next month type of thing

yeah i hope this has been helpful 

 i really hope you

found this useful because i know

visa process is a stressful thing and

there's not a lot of clear information

out there about

the things you need and the different

processes if you didn't find this useful

but you know someone it can help don't

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